


Unseeing

by genovianprince



Series: The World Was Screaming In Color [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blind Character, Blind Lance (Voltron), Clones, Kuron is Shiro (Voltron)'s Clone, Lotor is extra, Multi, Polyamory, Slow Burn, Trans Lance (Voltron), Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-09 16:05:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13485021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genovianprince/pseuds/genovianprince
Summary: A month after the end of season four, after Keith almost killed himself and Lotor turned to Voltron for help, Lance suffers from a grievous injury and wakes up blind. Keith comes back to pilot Red at Shiro's behest, but eventually Lance discovers something about Shiro that makes his skin crawl. He trusts Lotor more than Shiro at the moment, and not because the two of them gossip over facials together, though that helps. Even Black stops trusting Shiro once more. How is Lance supposed to approach this and ensure that Voltron pulls through?





	1. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have part one of the series written, the rest I have mighty plans for. I plan to update once a week, every Friday, but probably not at the same time every Friday. I hope you enjoy!

Another day, another fight against the Galra. Just the average life of your average paladin of Voltron. Lance chuckled to himself slightly as he continued to narrate in his head what happened as he snuck down through the vents. Stealth missions were great. A little over a month after they’d “captured” Lotor, the prisoner had begun to earn their trust. Lotor had knowledge they desperately needed to bring Zarkon down, and since they both had the same goals there, they had a truce. For now, anyway. So on the mission Lance went, trusting that things would go well. They’d done well so far.

In his head, he hummed the Mission: Impossible theme like a ~~total loser~~ boss as he crawled silently, rifle at the ready for him. He felt ready for anything.

Naturally, everything went and got quiznaked.

Lance fell through a shoddy part of ventilation and found himself immediately wrapped up in a fight, shooting at sentries. He heard the panicked yells of his teammates and only snapped his location at them, trying to focus on shooting the sentries down.

He didn’t notice the real Galra soldier behind him until it was too late.

 _Crack!_ Something struck his head, and it was lights out.

\---

“Keith, we need you back with Voltron,” Shiro said, voice strained as he stared up at the viewer to his best friend.

Keith frowned back. “Shiro, you guys have the right amount of people already. I’d just be extra,” he protested.

Shiro frowned in return. “Keith. Something happened, and we need you back home. Please,” he said, voice softer. “We really need you.”

 _Home_. Keith really would have loved to focus on that part, but the “something happened” part caught his attention more. “What happened?” he asked, tensing up as if expecting a fight to occur right there.

The older man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not something I should say over this. You need to be here in person. It’s… It’s Lance,” he admitted.

Keith stiffened, eyes narrowing. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said curtly, cutting the communication. The hard eyes and scowling face were just a front for his pounding heart and worry. _No. Not Lance. Please don’t Lance be dead,_ he begged, unsure to just whom he was begging.

He spoke quickly with Kolivan and took a pod, heading straight for the Castleship. _Home_. As Shiro called it, anyway. His hands tightened on the minor controls. It had felt more like home than anything else had his whole life, up until he left with the BoM. Now it felt foreign to him. He knew it was only because he was distancing _himself_ and doing it to his own damn self, but still.

 _They still need you,_ a voice piped up in the back of his head. Hope, Keith decided to call it. _They need you, Keith. Stop being such a dense motherfucker._

Okay, maybe not Hope. That voice was definitely Asshole. In fact, it did sound like that asshole Lance. 

… He was going crazy.

Arriving at the castle a few vargas later, he jetted in and left the pod in Black’s hangar. He felt her purr a greeting in his mind and he almost teared up, greeting her back and patting one of her giant paws as he walked by. He missed piloting one of the lions.

Red had noticed his presence as well and purred at him, flashing him a sense of worry over Lance. She didn’t know what happened, only that he was badly injured. He jolted and broke out into a dead sprint for the healing chambers. _At least he’s not dead_ and _It could be very **very** worse_ were thoughts that floated through his mind as he skidded to a stop outside the doors and composed himself before he walked in.

“Keith!” Pidge was the first to notice, darting over and slamming her tiny body into Keith with enough force to knock him back a little. “Lance is - Lance is - oh, quiznak, Keith, you need to know what happened.”

“Well, someone tell me then,” he said a bit angrily, even as he hugged Pidge back and moved into the room again. “Red’s worrying herself sick over him.”

“Blue is as well,” Allura said from her spot in a chair, gazing at Keith sadly. “His condition is - well, perhaps it’d be better coming from Coran.”

Eyebrows lifting, he turned to Coran, accepting a bone-crushing hug from a quietly crying Hunk. Hunk cried easily, but if it was _quiet_ crying, Keith was worried. Hunk wasn’t the type to quiet cry unless the situation was extremely bad.

“Tell me what’s wrong with Lance,” he said sharply.

Coran winced. “Well, I’m not going to lie, it looks pretty bad,” he said, “A Galra soldier took him by surprise and, well… smashed his skull in. Not exactly, but he was struck extremely hard. I wouldn’t be surprised if he suffered some sort of brain damage.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed. “Sure, sure. But he’s in a healing pod. Shouldn’t that help?”

Cora twisted his mustache, sighing. “My dear boy, I just don’t know. He’s not Altean. I’ve done what I could to update the healing pods for you Humans. But I’m afraid even our advanced technology can’t do as much as we would all wish to repair brain circuits. I _can_ know where the damage was centered,” he explained, “And it appears that… Hopefully not, but Lance might be blind. He suffered a blow that seems to have knocked his occipital lobe out of function. The soldier struck him hard right on the back of the head. Lucky he didn’t sever Lance’s spine, really.”

Keith stopped breathing.

“That soldier is now dead,” Allura said firmly, “I killed him.” And she’d cried about it. Taking a life was never easy. But she didn’t feel as bad as she thought she should have, especially considering she’d thought Lance dead at the time.

Shiro slipped an arm around her and hugged her close. “While Lance is recovering…” He paused. “We need you, Keith. For Voltron.”

Keith just nodded.

Pidge punched him in the arm and he yelped, startled. “What Shiro the Idiot’s not saying is that we miss you, too. We just need you here cause we need you, not cause the universe needs Voltron,” she said, glaring at Shiro, who blushed lightly.

Hunk wiped at his eyes. “Yeah, Keith. Lance talks about you every day, you know?” he said, trying to smile, “We miss you. A lot. It sucks that the family’s coming back together over this, though.”

Keith blushed, feeling touched and warm. _Home. His family._

“I didn’t mean it like that, Keith,” Shiro said gently, “I guess I’m still in Leader Mode. I miss you, too. You’re still like my little brother.” He smiled fondly, carding a comforting hand through Allura’s hair.

“I… Thanks,” he said quietly, going to sit down. He stared at Lance’s pod. “When will you decide the pod isn’t doing anything?”

“In a movement or so,” Coran answered. “It’ll only take a quintent to heal most of the damage. The rest is just… waiting to see if the pod can do the job we hope it does.”

Keith nodded, staring at Lance. He didn’t quite understand why his heart was ripping itself to shreds. Red’s soft whine at the back of his mind changed his focus to her. 

_{Miss you. Miss Lance. Lance okay?}_

The red paladin sighed softly. _Might not be. Miss Lance too._

She whined at him again and he decided to go visit her instead of sit here, doing nothing but worrying over Lance.

He made his way down to the hangars again, this time heading for Red. She laid down at his approach and opened her maw, allowing him inside. Once he settled in the cockpit, she started crying.

Keith was definitely not prepared for that and almost fell out of the chair. “Whoa, girl, whoa. Lance’ll be okay,” he said, awkwardly patting the console. “He’ll, well, he’ll live anyway.”

Red whined at him, projecting an image of a red lioness crying. _{Lance hurt!}_

Keith wobbled a little and let himself sink into Red’s mind, “petting” the lion in the mindscape. Her emotions mixed with his and he found himself crying too.

“This fucking sucks,” he choked out as he buried his face in the lion’s fur, “I miss you guys so much, and _this_ is what brings me back. Hah. Lance… I guess I could admit it to you, Red. You don’t tell secrets, right?”

Red whined and licked his face. _{No. Tell me.}_

“I love that idiot,” he said, projecting to her one of the more tame fantasties he’d had. Just him and Lance, cuddling and watching the stars as the Castleship moved through space, occasionally kissing. It was so domestic and sweet and he craved it. Lance pissed him the fuck off a lot, but he ignited feelings in Keith that he never thought he’d get to have. And the fucker was _straight_ so far as he knew, anyway.

Red nuzzled him, wishing she could tell Keith that wasn’t true and Lance loved him too (not that he knew it), but she kept her paladins’ secrets. Of course, she’d be pushing them together at some point. Maybe she could work out something with her pridemate, Black. She liked Keith, too.

_{Want Lance to be safe.}_

“He is safe, just… Hurt. And he might not fully recover. I don’t know what that means for Voltron yet,” Keith sighed. If Lance was going to be blind, then… Keith would probably be taking Red back. Suddenly he was very very glad he hadn’t been able to go through with his stupid plan to break the force field. Speaking of that… Were the others still holding Lotor prisoner? And he hadn’t seen Matt at the gathering, which Keith considered a bit of a good thing. He didn’t want to get yelled at for his near-suicide again.

Red growled. _{Gonna yell at you anyway!}_ she huffed, fur puffing up as she headbutted his chest harshly.

Keith fell over and groaned. “I already go this from Matt,” he said with exasperation.

Wrong thing to say. Red’s tail lashed in anger and she growled again, flashing him worry and anger and she watched his pod as it streaked towards the barrier and _she knew it wouldn’t work, tried to warn them, but they weren’t listening, no no no, not her cub -_

Keith choked as the scene and feelings assaulted him. Oh, shit, it was different from being yelled at by Matt. Actually feeling what they felt was so different. He had to accept that they cared about him then.

Black roared in his mind and Red stepped off Keith’s chest as the leader stalked over. _{Me too!}_ she yelled, growling. _{Worry worry worry! Miss you! Our cub! Don’t **ever** do it again!}_

“Okay, okay,” Keith said, breathing shakily and sitting up. (Seriously, the mindscapes were always a weird place to be, and he hadn’t even realized that both lions could join him, though it made sense). 

Black headbutted him gently and purred. _{Good. Stay.}_

“I’m staying,” he promised, kissing Black’s forehead. Red whined and he chuckled, turning to give her some affection too. “I just hope Lance pulls through okay.”

Black nodded at him and left, since it was still Red’s mindscape they lurked in. Red purred at Keith and sighed. _{Check on Lance,}_ she told him.

“He won’t be… I mean, he can’t leave the pod until a whole week - I mean movement - has passed,” he said.

She whined at him again. _{Check anyway or I’ll tell Black to sit on your pod.}_

Keith gave her a funny look. “Okay. I don’t really care about the pod, Red,” he said, amused. “But I’ll go check on him.”

Rising from the mindscape, he blinked when he found himself back in his physical body. That was always weird. He sighed and stood, stretching. “Damn, feels like my body’s just been sitting here for vargas,” he muttered, checking his watch. “Oh, that’ll be because it has. Time is weird.” _Everything_ had gone weird the moment Shiro had disappeared from Kerberos, honestly.

He exited Red and made his way down to the healing chamber again. The Castleship was on reserve power for the night, but Keith was surefooted as he found his way. 

Initially surprised that everyone had actually gone to bed, but grateful, Keith turned to Lance’s pod and rested his head against it, staring into it. “Get better, asshole,” he murmured. Then he noticed something and stared harder, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Was that…One of the mice?


	2. Chapter Two

Keith rose to a somber morning. He felt a bit listless and missed Lance’s wild, electric presence. Sighing, he went to train for a couple hours before he showered and headed into the kitchen.

He froze when he saw Lotor sitting at the table.

“Ah, the true red paladin returns,” Lotor said loftily, smirking at him.

Pidge growled at him under their breath. “Lance went on that mission on _your_ information, Lotor,” she said sharply, “I’d watch my mouth if I were you, or else -”

“It might wind up punched,” Keith finished for her, cracking his knuckles. The motherfucker who had hurt his Lance (not his, technically, but whatever) may have been dead, but _this_ motherfucker had sent him into the battle where he’d been hurt.

“Ooh, threats,” Lotor sighed dramatically, “I don’t suppose you’d listen to me if I told you there was absolutely no way I could have warned any of them that Lance was there. I _want_ my father dead, in case you’ve forgotten. Incapacitating my tentative allies goes against that.”

Pidge gnashed her teeth, but didn’t say anything. She, Matt, and Hunk had scoured for any signs of outgoing signals that didn’t match up, and none of them could find any evidence against Lotor. He was just… the easy target.

Hunk came to the table and placed the plates down, having expected Keith to be at the second breakfast round. Allura, Coran, and Shiro had already eaten for the day to get planning, contacting, and keeping an eye on Lance.

“Hey buddy. I managed to get ahold of stuff to make something similar to blueberry pancakes back home,” Hunk said brightly, “There’s no syrup, but you can only get so much sometimes, you know?”

Keith wanted to keep fighting with Lotor, but he didn’t even know what he would say right now. Maybe he could get the dirt from Lance. He sat down, accepting the plate and smiling slightly at Hunk.

“Thanks, big guy. Still remembered my favorite,” he complimented, taking a bite. Oh, man, they tasted just like home. He’d missed Hunk’s cooking.

Hunk laughed. “Of course I did. I never forget anything to do with food,” he said, beaming at the praise and passing plates to Pidge and Lotor.

Pidge stabbed at her food unhappily, but ate it. She quickly dissolved into a mess when, just like Keith, the stack reminded them of home. Breakfast with the Garrison Trio. Watching Lance watch someone who she now realized must have been Keith. She almost choked on the memory (and her food). Lance probably wouldn’t be able to watch Keith anymore. No matter how much the fool denied he’d been staring. Resolutely pushing the feelings away, refusing to cry in front of the smug bastard Lotor, she focused on eating.

Lotor frowned at the pancakes, but tried them. They were a little sweet for his taste, but fairly nice. “You said this is similar to some the food from your planet?” he probed.

Hunk nodded. “Yup. There’s nothing like the real thing, of course. But sometimes you gotta settle for good enough, and buddy, I make good enough turn into great,” he bragged a little. Hey, he was confident in his food, so he deserved to brag a little.

A smile quirked at Lotor’s lips and he continued eating. “Well, it is a little too sweet for me, but enjoyable.”

Keith snorted. “You haven’t had this stuff with maple syrup,” he replied, “It’s where sweet teeth go to die.”

Lotor wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think I’ll be trying this with… maple syrup, then,” he said delicately. 

Keith snorted again and treasured every bite of the blueberry pancakes, even if the berries weren’t actually Earth blueberries, or anything of the sort. It was good enough. Or since it came from Hunk, great. He chuckled internally at himself and tossed his plate in the sink.

“Gonna visit Lance. See ya,” he said, nodding to Hunk and Pidge and just barely resisting flipping Lotor off as he exited the room.

Heaving a deep sigh, Keith trudged to the healing chamber, brows lifting in surprise when he saw Coran fiddling with the controls.

“What’s going on?” he asked cautiously.

“Oh, Allura had noticed Chulatt was missing,” Coran said cheerfully, “And I figured out he was in Lance’s pod when you said something -”

“You mean you knew when I told you,” Keith said dryly.

Coran waved him off. “Details! I’m trying to see if I could get Chulatt out without disturbing Lance’s healing process, but I don’t seem to be able to,” he explained as he continued tapping at the controls. “Well, if Chulatt could survive ten thousand deca-phoebs, he can survive another movement in the pod.”

Keith nodded again. “Any news on his progress?”

Twisting his mustache, Coran sighed a little. “Minimal at best. All his other injuries have healed nicely, but scans are showing that part of the brain is still non-functional. We still have six quintants to go, though!” he said cheerfully. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

“I _hate_ waiting-and-seeing,” Keith groaned, throwing himself face-down onto the couch. “I just want him back already.”

“I know, my dear boy. I do too,” Coran replied softly.

\--

The movement had passed. The paladins gathered in the healing chamber and Coran told them the news.

“The pod wasn’t able to repair the damage cause to Lance’s occipital lobe,” he announced, “Lance is… Well, you know. He will be blind when he steps out and he’ll probably be overwhelmed and disoriented, so be careful with him. I wish I could leave him in there longer to try and see where it goes, but if nothing’s happened by now, it won’t.”

Hunk almost started crying again.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to leave you guys with only ~900 words for the last chapter, so double update today!

The first thing Lance knew was that he was _cold as fuck_ , which meant he’d been in a healing pod. He blinked hard a few times, trying to clear - whatever-stuff - from his eyes. Huh? He heard the shuffling of other people in the room and reached up to take off a blindfold, maybe? But nothing was there. He rubbed his eyes hard and blinked again.

“Uh, Coran, I think you let me out too early,” he said, voice unnaturally high even as he tried to remain calm. “My eyeballs aren’t fixed. Can’t see your gorgeous face, Space Uncle.”

Coran smiled faintly at the nickname, though Lance wouldn’t know it. “Yes, well… It wasn’t your eyeballs that were hurt. It was the part of your brain that manages sight input that was damaged.”

Wait, what? Coran said… brain damage. “Uh, okay,” he scoffed, “Don’t see why the distinction needs to be made. Problem is, still can’t see. I’m the sharpshooter. Kinda need to see.”

Lance saw _exactly_ why the distinction needed to be made. Even with the best tech, brain damage was still something that was extremely hard to recover from. Even with _Altean_ tech. Coran had said so before, and Lance remembered it clearly. But he refused to believe it right now. No.

At the stretching silence, Lance muttered some not-so-nice Spanish under his breath. “Guys, come on, I can hear the rest of you. Stop trying this crappy prank on me, okay? I know I’ve pranked you guys before, but this isn’t funny.”

“Lance…” Shiro didn’t know how to continue.

Lance’s breath caught. _No._ “Come on… Hunk?” he pleaded. His best friend wouldn’t do this to him, right? It had to be a prank and Hunk would give in the moment Lance called him on it.

“... Lance, I’m sorry,” Hunk said, a tremble in his voice from crying. Again.

Okay, new best friend. He turned to where he thought Pidge might be. “Pidge, seriously,” he whined, “I wouldn’t mess with your tech junk like this! Give it up.”

Pidge choked on her words as Lance’s eyes shifted uselessly around the room, trying to locate her. “Lance, I can’t,” she said miserably.

Shit. Okay. “Is Matt around? Matt, kick your sibling’s butt for me.” Silence. “Okay, great. Allura, seriously. Make them stop.”

“I’m afraid I can’t, Lance,” Allura said quietly, voice breaking slightly. “It’s not a prank.”

“No, no, it _has_ to be,” Lance insisted, “I can’t do anything if it’s not. Seriously, Coran, put me back in.”

Coran swallowed.

“Lance.”

Lance’s head snapped up and he stared as well as one could at the direction of the voice. “Keith? I didn’t know you were here. You’re my last friend right now,” he said with a weak laugh. “Dude, make them stop with this shitty joke.”

Keith shook his head. “I can’t do that, Lance. We’ve been waiting for a week with no signs of improvement. I’m sorry, but… You’re blind.” And it absolutely killed Keith to be the one to finally get it through Lance’s head.

Lance laughed wetly. “No, no, you’re wrong, see, because I… I’m the sharpshooter. I’m a pilot. I, y’know, need to see. I have to _see_ to do those things,” he said, getting increasingly desperate and a little hysterical. “I can’t just be blind; that’s silly. We’ve got the story wrong, rewind and check again.”

“This isn’t a TV show, Lance,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “There is no _story_ , we can’t _rewind_. It’s… It’s real.” Fuck, why did his voice have to crack?

Okay, Lance was seriously starting to panic. He wouldn’t have a place on the team anymore. _No, no no, it just couldn’t be true, it can’t be **true stop it nO NO NO**_

Soft squeaking in his ear distracted him for a moment and he hiccuped, trying to settle his breathing again. Fuck. No, he had to pull his confidence back. He couldn’t be like this. Broken. Even though he was. He still had to act cool.

_:Worry. Lance? Wrong? Sad? Why? Worry.:_

Lance’s head reared in confusion at the odd voice in his head - and he knew it was similar to the way Blue and Red had spoken to him before, so he wasn’t worried about going crazy.

“Uh… Something’s talking to me,” he said unsteadily, “What in the hell happened while I was… out?”

Coran smacked his forehead. “Of course! Chulatt, the littlest blue mouse, from what I can gather, was worried about you, Lance. He snuck into your pod before I sealed it and… It seems you’ve been linked together the same way Allura has been to the others. It must be Chulatt talking to you.”

Lance reached for the mouse on his shoulder and pet him gently. “Chulatt?”

_:Yes! Lance! Worry. Wrong?:_

_Chulatt, I’m… I can’t see, he projected, I… I’ve been hurt._

_:Worry. Better?:_

_Maybe. We’ll see… if I can see._

Aloud, he spoke again. “So… I’m blind and can talk to one of the mice now. Nice,” he said hollowly. Just until he got to his room, then he’d cry. Shit. Wait. How would he get there? Fuck.

“Lance, you don’t have to…” Keith trailed off.

“Don’t have to what?” Lance said, grinning to mask his pain, though he could tell it felt wrong. “I’m fine, I just need to get to my room. I’ll work something out. Just because I can’t see doesn’t mean I can’t, I dunno, do something. I’ll work it out.”

Coran ushered everyone away, except Keith, who refused to leave.

“I’ll, uh... Help you get to your room,” he said awkwardly, “Do you want me to take your hand or something?”

Lance scoffed, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall. “Psh! As if I’d trust you. I remember the invisible maze incident. It’s just that everything is invisible now,” he said imperiously, waving a hand. “You’ll just make me crash.”

Keith made a frustrated noise. Lance hesitated.

“... Okay,” he finally relented, “You can help. Just… take my arm. Like an old movie.” He held out his arm, the one without a mouse on its shoulder.

Keith took it. “I always have your back, Lance,” he murmured.

“... I know. I’m your right hand man, after all. I have to trust you even when I call you out for stupid shit,” he said with a laugh, burying his feelings hard. 

Keith’s heart stuttered. _If Lance ever knew what I really almost did, he’d give me the same lecture Matt did. No doubt._

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty stupid according to you, but if you remember, Shiro wanted me to lead Voltron,” Keith ribbed easily, trying to give Lance some sense of normalcy.

Lance fell into it easily, letting himself hide behind his wall. “Only because you both like bad hairstyles,” he snorted, “Mullets and undercuts? Psh.”

“It’s not a mullet!” he defended himself, “It’s just kinda long.”

Rolling his eyes ( _oh god can’t see **can’t see STOP**_ ), Lance continued, “It’s only gotten longer since we’ve been in space, making it worse. It was barely a mullet before, but you kept it trimmed on Earth. Now you’ve let it get all more wild and it’s totally, one hundred percent a mullet.”

Keith sighed. “We’re at your room,” he said a few moments later, opening the door. “If it’ll make you shut up about the damn mullet, I’ll cut it.”

“No!” Lance nearly shouted, startling Keith. No, Keith couldn’t. Lance would never get to know how he looked again. “No, just… Leave it. Wait. Did you actually admit to it being a mullet just now?”

“No,” Keith replied instantly, wondering why Lance would be so adamant that Keith not cut his hair, “I did not. No way.”

Lance grinned, shifting towards his bed and sitting on it. Thank God he knew how to navigate his room. “You did. You said if I shut up ‘about the damn mullet’ which means you think it’s a mullet too,” he said triumphantly, “So there.”

Keith groaned. “Asshole. I’m going back to the others now, okay? If you need anything just let us know,” he replied, walking away and letting the door slide shut behind him.

Lance was alone.

_:Better?:_

Not alone. But alone enough he could cry. He finally allowed himself to feel what he’d been pushing down to keep his upbeat attitude and sobbed, carefully taking the mouse from his shoulder and laying back on the bed. _Not better._

_:Worry.:_

_I know._

He kept stroking Chulatt, drawing small comfort from it as he cried. He’d lost so much that day. He couldn’t see. There was no way he’d be able to pilot a lion, or do any combat. Hell, he couldn’t even attempt to learn how to hack anything to help like Pidge and Matt. He needed sight for everything he could have done to help, and now he was useless. 

God, Lance couldn’t even just go home. Stuck in this godforsaken Castleship in space, completely and utterly useless. Though he could feel the breathing and rapid heartbeat of the squeaking, concerned mouse beside him, Lance had never felt so alone in his life.


	4. Chapter Four

Lance woke slowly. His thoughts buzzed sluggishly in his head, face tight with dried tears that were never cleaned away. Wincing and wiping at the crusty crap, he rubbed his eyes and almost started crying again.

He still couldn’t see. He knew he probably wouldn’t even be able to for the rest of his life, now. This was nuts. Cursing, he rolled out of bed carefully. He heard soft squeaking and he turned to look - _goddamnit_ \- for the mouse. Sighing, he put his hand down on the bed, palm up.

_Come here, Chulatt. I won’t leave you._

_:Blankets! Caught!:_

_Shit. Hold on, buddy, I’ll find you._

Lance took a deep breath and started feeling very carefully for the mouse. Eventually, he felt the bump beneath a fold and heard a confirming squeak. Smiling a little, he peeled the blanket back and picked Chulatt up. _Got ya._

_:Safe. Happy.:_

_Yeah. Me too._

Chulatt squeaked and ran up Lance’s left arm, settling under his ear. Lance laughed. “Is that where you want to stay? Okay, lil’ buddy. You’re gonna have to get down in a sec, though. I’ve got a skincare routine to do,” he said, carefully picking his way to his bathroom. Shit. He actually had to clean up his room now, didn’t he? Thankfully not much was really on the floor. Lance cared way too much about his wardrobe to let clothes wrinkle on the floor. Just some trash, probably. He’d get Hunk to help.

He set Chulatt down on the counter. “Careful here, bud. I don’t know what some of this stuff could do to you,” he warned, glad he knew where everything was already. Remembering the time he’d done this blindfolded (just to see if he could), he put that memory to its test. He applied his facial creams in the right order, timing everything just right. He was starting to feel normal again, now. Routine.

Hopping in the shower for the rest of the skincare routine, he started humming. This he could do. He could remember where everything was. He just… outside of his room, he’d have a hard time finding his way around at first.

Three solid _thunks_ echoed on his door as he pulled his binder over his body, jeans and packer in place, and he answered without bothering to put on his shirt - only Hunk knocked that way, and Hunk would only knock if he was by himself. Lance’s best friend was the only one who knew he was trans (except Coran, as the mechanic/medic/uncle person who helped give him his T shots through magical mumbo-jumbo).

He’d originally thought Pidge was like him when they first met. He’d asserted Pidge’s manliness to help validate her, since she didn’t seem to be on T or anything at the time, but he’d supported her. Then she went and said she’d only been pretending to get in the Garrison and he’d been shocked to his core. Pidge was actually _just_ a girl, and man, had he felt stupid for ever thinking otherwise. Hunk had also been shocked, but pretended otherwise easily in front of the team for - for whatever reason. He’d been kinda pissed about that, too. Hunk apologized, and Lance had accepted. Lance was willing to bet the only two people who’d actually known Pidge was a girl were Shiro and Allura, and only Allura because of the mice.

“Hey buddy. How’re you feeling?” Hunk asked, coming in when Lance shifted away from the door. Lance stuffed his hands into his pockets and smirked, letting his confidence barrier snap into place.

“Feeling pretty fantastic. I can navigate my room and still do my skincare routine without help,” he said smugly.

“I watched you do it blindfolded that once,” Hunk laughed, “I didn’t doubt you could. That’s why I waited a bit before coming to get you for breakfast. Get your shirt on.” 

Lance smiled in what he hoped was Hunk’s direction and sauntered to his wardrobe, almost running into it. He winced.

“Aw, shit. I don’t remember what order my shirts are in!” Lance snapped, _thunk_ ing his head against the doors. Tears gathered in his eyes, threatening to fall.

“Whoa, whoa, Lance, it’s okay. I’ll um, I’ll see about getting clothing separators or something,” Hunk suggested, “I’ll organize it from fancy to casual and rainbow order or whatever you want. What did you want to put on?

Lance stepped away, letting the tears fall. “I don’t - I don’t - Hunk… I’m scared,” he finally admitted, sitting down hard on his bed. Chulatt squeaked in alarm and he quickly apologized to his little friend for almost crushing him, petting Chulatt gently. 

Hunk sighed and pulled Lance’s favorite shirt out. “I’ve got the long blue sleeved one,” he said, putting it in Lance’s hands. “It’s okay to be scared, bud. I’m here for you. We _all_ are. I might know the most about you, but we’re still your team. All of us. We… We’re going to help, you know?”

Lance roughly yanked the shirt on after feeling for the tag so he didn’t put it on backwards. He didn’t need any teasing ammo from Pidge. She probably wouldn’t do it, but maybe if she weren’t thinking, she’d make a stupid comment.

“I know. I just… I don’t know,” he said exasperatedly, scooping Chulatt up and flopping backwards on the bed. “I feel so… Useless. I _know_ I am, Hunk. I can’t be the sharpshooter. I can’t fly. I can’t hack. I can’t do any kind of hand-to-hand combat. I can’t look at maps. I can’t play video games with you guys anymore, or cook with you, or - or even use the bathroom standing up anymore! It took me so long to get the hang of it, you know that, and I was so proud, and now I’m just… Back to square one. The only thing I could do is milk the damn cow.”

Hunk looked down, unsure of what to do or say. “Well… you still belong on the team, Lance. We’ll figure something out together. You’re not useless,” he said firmly, “No way. There’s things for you to do; we just don’t see what they are yet.”

“Nice choice of words,” Lance snapped.

“I’m sorry!” Hunk apologized immediately, guilt crashing through him.

Now Lance felt a little guilty. He couldn’t blame his best friend for just using a metaphor. It hurt a little, but it would probably take a bit for anyone to catch on. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped. Actually, it’s kinda funny,” he said ruefully, chuckling as he sat up and perched Chulatt on his shoulder. “Fuck that being doom and gloom about it bullshit.”

Hunk raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. “If you’re okay with it, Lance,” he said.

“Duh. Would I lie to you?” he said, feigning innocence.

“Yes,” Hunk said dryly.

Lance pouted.

_:Funny!:_

Lance clutched at his chest dramatically. “Chulatt, how could you betray me so?” he moaned, standing up. “Okay, Hunk. You’re gonna have to help me. I need to like, count how many steps everything is. Like from here to the bridge, and to the kitchen, and all the turns. So you gotta let me know, right?”

“I’ll be there every step of the way,” Hunk promised. “I’ll see if we can stop by a Swap Moon for a cane or something. And sunglasses if you want them.”

Lance didn’t want sunglasses. It would have felt way too weird. Like he was trying to hide. “Just the cane.”

Hunk nodded. Wait, shit. “Got it,” he confirmed.

Lance began counting his steps as they walked out of his room. He and Hunk practiced going all over after they had a quick breakfast (which thankfully nobody else was present for). Lance needed to memorize this stuff quickly, and after only a couple of repetitions, he had his paths mapped out perfectly.

“I’m glad we didn’t run into anyone,” Lance admitted when he and Hunk were alone in his room. “Or at least, anyone who wanted to talk. I know we passed by Coran at one point.” It was fairly easy to detect who was who by their footsteps.

“Yeah. You gotta face them sometime, Lance,” Hunk said gently, “They’re all worried about you.”

Lance sighed gustily. “I know. I just… I don’t know how to deal with it, big guy. They’re gonna ask invasive questions and stuff. I’m barely holding myself together as it is.”

Hunk hugged him tightly. “I can make them back off,” he offered.

“Yeah? Gonna threaten to not cook anything except that crappy ass food goo for a movement or something?” Lance teased.

“Uh, maybe,” Hunk said, laughing. “I’m too nice; I can’t do anything that mean.”

“That’s a lie. You can be pretty mean when you want to be, _mi amigo_ ,” Lance snorted, elbowing Hunk.

Hunk shrugged. “Not to my family. Unless they really, really deserve to be yelled at,” he said. “You and everyone on this ship, minus Lotor cause he’s an asshole, are my family.”

Lance’s breath caught in his throat. Jesus, did Hunk _want_ Lance to cry again? Because - yup, here were the tears. “I miss my family from Earth, but I couldn’t have had a better space family,” he replied. He felt Hunk’s arms encircle him and knew that the big guy was crying too.

“I miss my moms so much. I don’t know what I’d do without you here, Lance,” Hunk whispered.

“Me either, Hunk. I… We may be able to go home someday, but I’ll never be able to actually see my mom again,” he sobbed, “Or my brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.”

Hunk just held him. “I know. I’m so sorry, Lance.”

He buried his face in Hunk’s chest, allowing himself a minute or two to get it out and then tried to calm down. “I’m glad… I’m glad that you can consider us all a family. And not just a team,” he finally whispered, wiping his face.

“I know everyone else does, too. Voltron’s not just a team. It’s family. All of us. You know, except Lotor, cause he still freaks me out,” Hunk rambled.

Lance chuckled. “Psh. He’s a big baby,” he said, waving his hand, “A total asshole, but still a baby.”

Hunk laughed at that. “Yeah, only cause you guys go nuts over facials together.” He nudged Lance and stood. “Come on, man. You need to talk to the others.”

The shorter man pouted, but rose, stretching. “I’m not gonna like this,” he muttered.

_:Sad. Worry.:_

_I’m fine, Chu. I will be okay._

_:Okay. Happy.:_

_Yeah, maybe in a while._

He thought perhaps he should have found it odd how quickly he got used to the mouse in his head, but then, it wasn’t very different from the lions. Red purred at him and he felt a spring in his step. She still cared about him. Good, cause he was damn sick of crying.

_{Love Lance.}_

_You’re sweeter than honey, Red._

_{Good.}_ Smugness radiated from her in his mind and he chuckled again. _{Miss you.}_

_Miss you too. Be good for Keith again, since I… I’m out of commission for a while._

He felt her disappointment, yet she accepted it. For now. Red wouldn’t let her other paladin sulk for too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't really find a good split for this chapter except here, since next chapter is all about Space Mall shopping, and even that had to be split into two.... I'll do a double update next week again so you get the whole thing at once though :)


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update day! Enjoy Space Mall shenanigans :)

The other paladins (alongside Lotor and Matt) had gathered in the bridge, waiting for Hunk and Lance to show up.

“Hey Lance, you doing okay?” Pidge chirped, trying to be cheerful for him as they walked in.

Lance wrinkled his nose, tilting his head to stare unerringly right where Pidge sat (not that he knew it). “Pidge, darling, cheerful doesn’t work for you,” he said easily, letting the pain wash away. It was easier to joke about it, and he’d dried enough tears over it already. It wouldn’t be easy forever, but… He could do it today. He could cope this way.

“Eugh, creepy, dude. You’re staring right at me. How did you do that?” she asked, shivering and crossing her arms.

“Sharp ears. I’m like a bat. I’ll use echolocation now,” he teased.

“I don’t think anyone wants to hear Lance’s high-pitched shrieking more often than we have to,” Keith said dryly.

“Hey, rude!” Lance huffed, pouting in Keith’s general direction. He’d only pinned Pidge down because he knew exactly where she sat every time. Keith had a tendency to pick different edges to stand at.

Lotor watched the interactions with an unreadable expression. “I am glad to see you are well, Lance,” he finally said.

“It’s only because you missed our nightly facial last night, isn’t it?” he asked, raising a brow.

Lotor’s soft  _ harumph _ had Lance laughing. “Oh, it totally is.” There was no denying it and Lance smirked in triumph.

Matt walked over and clapped Lance on the shoulder. “Seriously, it’s good to see you bounce back.”

Matt and Lance had bonded quickly, despite the “rivalry” over Allura. Lance knew he didn’t really have a chance with her - she had eyes for Shiro. And probably Matt, too. Polyamory apparently had been common on Altea. Lance was, of course, disappointed, but he wasted no time in trying to push the three of them together. It was obvious to anyone who had eyes (he winced at the metaphor in his head) that Matt dearly liked both Shiro and Allura, and them each other and Matt. Lance’s inner romantic was screaming at him to get them together.

“What can I say, I’m pretty flexible,” Lance said with a wink, not sure it’d have the same effect since he couldn’t be sure he was actually looking at Matt properly.

“Stop flirting with my brother, you weirdo,” Pidge shouted.

Shiro sighed, long and deep, distracting Keith from his sudden questions about Lance’s sexuality.

“Lance will be able to get around the Castleship fine. We just need to get him a cane from a Swap Moon,” Hunk said at Shiro’s questioning look.

Shiro nodded. “Good. Coran, set a course. Looks like we have some time for shopping anyway. The Galra are taking some time to recover and seem wary of going anywhere near a part of the Coalition for awhile,” he explained. “We’ll take a quintant to recharge and plan. Then we’ll practice forming Voltron  to make sure we can work together.”

Lance’s mouth went dry, but he nodded his acceptance. Shiro hadn’t formed Voltron with both Keith and Allura, so of course they’d have to make sure they meshed. It didn’t stop the ache in his chest. He was  _ definitely _ the seventh wheel this time. Hell, ninth wheel, since Matt and Lotor were more useful than him.

“Promise not to let the gremlin buy me any ugly clothes while we’re down there,” Lance whined, hiding behind his wall again.

“I’ll hold her GAC hostage,” Matt replied, laughing at Pidge’s indignant expression.

Hunk chuckled. “Don’t worry, Lance, if anyone knows your taste by now, it’s definitely me. And Allura,” he added as an afterthought. Seriously, those two were thick as thieves on shopping days.

Allura beamed at that. “Pidge won’t get away with making you get something truly horrendous,” she assured.

Lance threw finger guns in what he hoped was her direction. “Awesome. Thanks, ‘Lura. Good to know I still have a shopping partner.”

“What is your Human phrase?” Lotor suddenly asked, frowning lightly. “I believe it goes something like… What am I, chopped liver?”

Lance cackled. “Sorry Princey,” he said through his laughs, “I don’t trust you to get me something nice. We might fawn over fashionable stuff together, but you’d prank me, same as Pidge would.”

Lotor  _ harumph’ _ ed again and Lance could only give him a shit-eating grin.

Shiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, but he smiled fondly. A happy, joking Lance was better than a Lance on the verge of tears, begging everyone to tell him it was all a very cruel joke.

_ :Happy!:  _ Chulatt squeaked.

_ Yeah, little buddy, happy _ . And it was true, for now. He felt… not exactly happy, but content. Yeah. The situation absolutely sucked Zarkon’s giant hairy gross balls, but he didn’t have to mope. Accepting it and moving on was the best thing he could do….. It was just easier said than done.

At least he could still assist in making plans and lightening the mood. He was a never ending fountain of jokes and razzle dazzle as they discussed their next moves while Coran made sure the Castleship was heading towards a Swap Moon.

Lance hardly noticed Keith gravitating towards him, but only Keith could shuffle the way he did in those boots. Despite his loud mouth, Lance heard every step Keith took in getting closer. He pretended not to, though, so he could get away with what he wanted to do next - it would probably be the  _ only _ time he could, but man, did he want to.

The second he knew Keith had shuffled close enough, Lance jumped into another joke, flailing his hands in emphasis, and smacking Keith across the forehead.

“Ow! What the hell, Lance!” Keith shouted, rubbing his forehead and glaring uselessly at the other man.

Lance put on an innocent face. “Sorry, Keith, I had no idea you’d gotten that close. Didn’t see ya there,” he said casually, trying not to laugh. Man, he wished he could see Keith’s face right now.

“Oh. Right,” Keith muttered, sounding embarrassed.

“Is he blushing? He’s totally blushing, isn’t he?” Lance asked, a teasing grin making its way across his face.

“Yup,” Pidge said, popping the ‘p’.

“Traitor,” Keith huffed, turning his glare to Pidge.

Shiro sighed, sensing he’d finally lost control of the situation. “Okay, I’m going to update Kolivan and then we’re going to go shopping.”

Lance whooped. 

\---

The first thing Allura looked out for as she walked with Lance was something resembling the canes Hunk had described to her. They sounded similar to the ones they had used on old Altea, so Allura felt confident that she could spot one among the shops.

After the third shop, Lance heard Allura’s gasp and felt a tug on his arm, forcing him to quicken his pace and let her drag him to whatever she’d seen.

“Lance, I found one for you,” she said cheerily, grabbing one of the canes from the shelf and passing it to Lance.

Lance took it, confused by the feel. Sure, the stick part felt like a cane, but  the top of it had some kind of lump. He fiddled with it for a moment, feeling a handle on the bottom of the stick and squeezing. The lump opened up and Lance started laughing.

“Allura, this isn’t a, haha, this isn’t a cane, it’s a grabber,” he said through his chuckles, “I’ll totally get one, but it won’t work. The cane needs to be collapsible so I can put it away easily.”

He could feel her disappointment as she took it and put it back. “I thought it was clever,” she mumbled.

Lance chuckled again. “It’s pretty nice, Princess. Sorry, though.”

She sighed, scanning the shelf again. One caught her eye and she took it down, looking it over. This one looked extremely accurate to what Hunk had told her to look for and she passed it to Lance. 

Taking it with a small frown, Lance felt around with it, using it to walk away from Allura a little before turning and going back.

“It’s the right length for my height,” he said, “So I think it should be good. Feels nice in my hand, too.”

“Oh, good!” Allura exclaimed, clapping her hands together and smiling brightly. “Let’s get it, then.”

She skipped over to the counter and began to haggle with the employee. Lance tuned her out, walking around the store and testing out his new cane. He had no doubt that Allura would be able to get it for him easily.

When he started hearing a heated argument, he frowned and made his way back to the counter quietly.

“How can you ask two thousand GAC for that?” Allura hissed, glaring darkly at the counter man.

“Look, lady, I don’t make the rules,” came the high-pitched whiny voice of the other alien. It made Lance shiver in disgust.

“Please, we don’t have enough and we really need this,” she insisted, “There must be  _ something _ you can do.”

Lance bit his lip. Allura didn’t have to do this for him. So what if he tripped or ran into a few doors, right? Plus, two thousand GAC was about forty bucks in USD from what he could tell. That was pretty needlessly expensive, but still.

“Allura, stop, it’s okay,” he said, coming closer, “I don’t need it. We’ll just, I don’t know, figure something else out. There have to be some kind of aliens who don’t have eyes that we could get something from, right?”

The employee stuttered as he stared at Lance. “Wait, that’s why you want it?” he asked curiously, “But you have eyes; I can see them!”

Lance’s face twisted. “Yeah, I know. Something happened,” he said harshly, “Just the other quintant, in fact.”

“Oh, I…” The alien trailed off, unsure of what to say. He wasn’t used to this kind of shit happening at his crappy old junk store. Tails above, why did his three hearts break for this kid? “Look, man, I got that for a steal - it was in a bundle with all those other odd sticks for - well. How’s 500 GAC instead?”

“We’ll take it!” Allura said before Lance could tell the alien to quiznak himself. She passed over the coins and dragged Lance out of the store.

“Allura, I don’t need other people pitying me like that,” he whispered harshly, scowling.

“Lance, he was trying to swindle us anyway. 500 GAC was still a bit much if you ask me, but -” 

Lance pulled her to a stop. “Allura. I don’t want to use my blindness like that,” he hissed, “It’s not fair. It’s not okay. And I don’t like the feeling it gives me, alright? I get that you like to haggle, but I…” He felt used. He didn’t like pity, either, or being given special treatment because of his new handicap.

“Oh…” Guilt ate at Allura’s stomach and she bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Lance. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I just wanted to help.”

Lance sighed. “I know. But maybe next time, don’t do it like that,” he suggested, a smile working its way back to his face.

“I promise,” she said, squeezing him in a hug. “I’ll let you braid my hair tonight to make up for it.”

“You know the way to my heart,  _ mi amiga! _ ” Lance said, the smile a full-blown grin.

They met up with the rest at the food court for lunch, Lance showing off his new “beating stick”. Hunk described Lance’s food to him and helped guide his fork around the plate at the beginning of the meal. Once Lance caught on, Hunk let him be to eat his food too. Pidge bragged about the tech she’d been able to find at the back of junk shops so far, Shiro admitted to buying a nice cologne, and Hunk rambled about food ingredients and recipe books he’d seen. Keith hadn’t found anything he wanted.   
  
“I have been unable to make a decision on some clothing items,” Lotor hummed, “I need my second and third opinions. Especially since I’m in disguise.” He’d had to shapeshift in order to walk around the mall without being taken in for reward money. He’d altered his skin to a light shade of blue, and his hair to match, though it was much shorter at the moment. His ears had become more rounded. Lastly, his eyes, instead of the yellow sclera and deep blue irises, they were a nauseating neon green except for his pupils. He resembled more of an Etkaria from the planet Etka.   
  
“Well, since Allura and I completed our stick mission,” Lance said, tapping the collapsed cane he’d laid on the table, “We’ll totally be in those shops with you right after lunch.”

“Indeed. I have been needing a new dress,” Allura added, beaming. “We’ll help you out.”

Pidge made a disgusted noise. “You guys and your fashion,” she said derisively, “I’ll never get it.”

Lance gasped. “Pidge! How could you say you don’t care about your appearance?” he moaned dramatically.

“That’s not what I said at all,” she replied, facepalming.

“By saying you don’t care for fashion, you are inherently saying that you don’t care what you wear, thus, your appearance isn’t important,” Lotor explained easily, smirking.

Lance smirked in triumph and Pidge just groaned, choosing to eat instead of respond.

“Oh, I got clothing separators for your closet, Lance,” Hunk chimed in, “I’d almost forgotten. I’ll help you put it all together when we get back.”

“Thanks, bud,” Lance said cheerfully.

Two vargas later, he’d helped Allura and Lotor pick out more clothes. He’d only gotten a couple of new shirts, but they looked fabulous on him, according his friends.

He nearly wound up running into Keith, but he steadied himself. “Keith, my man! We gotta get you some stuff too,” he said, reaching out and grabbing Keith’s hand.

Keith blinked, thankful for his gloves. If he hadn’t had them, Lance would feel how sweaty his palms had gotten at the action. “Uh… I really don’t need anything,” he said awkwardly, “I have enough.”

“Psh! You need something. Come on, I was in this great store not too long ago that I’m sure will fit your taste,” he said, tugging on Keith’s hand.

“We’ll leave you to it!” Allura said, taking Lotor’s hand and dragging the confused prince away, along with all their other shopping stuff.

“Now wait just a moment,” he huffed, pulling her to a stop once they were out of earshot, “You’re going to let Lance torture Keith like this? He’s as bad as Pidge!”

Allura wrinkled her nose at him. “Lotor, Keith’s in  _ love  _ with Lance. He’ll hate it, but endure it for him. He  _ does _ need new clothes and maybe it will force Lance to realize he’s in love with Keith. It’s obvious to everyone how in love they are,” she explained.

Lotor raised a brow. “I see. And while you meddle in their lives, you don’t act on your own feelings for Matt and Shiro because…?”

Allura blushed. “No. I am  _ not _ having this conversation,” she said firmly, walking away.

“You insist on forcing it on Keith and Lance,” he pointed out, “Perhaps I should make them do the same to you. It’s obvious, as you said, to everyone how in love the three of you are.”

Allura promised herself to never meddle in love lives again if Lotor would just leave her alone. She really didn’t want to do this.

Lotor just chuckled. 

\--

Lance tugged on Keith’s hand again and Keith sighed. “Fine, fine, I’ll let you take me to this amazing shop that I’ll just love,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Choosing to ignore that, Lance beamed. “Good. Come on!” he enthused, turning around and heading back. He recognized the shop by the scent of it and turned in, still tugging Keith along.

“... Lance.”

“Yes?”

“... This is a freaking  _ space Hot Topic _ .”

“Yeah, so? I told you you’d like it in here, Emo Mullet.”

Silence. Lance bit his lip, worried he’d fucked up. “Hey, Keith, look, I didn’t mean it to be a joke or anything, I thought you’d, you know, like this store. Cripes, you wear the fingerless gloves and everything,” he started to ramble.

Keith finally let go of Lance’s hand (why hadn’t he sooner? Oh right, his big gay crush) and put his hand over Lance’s shoulder instead, making him shut up. “Lance, it’s alright. This is… actually kinda perfect,” he admitted, “If you tell anyone I said that or what store we shopped in, I’ll kill you, though.”

Immediately feeling better, Lance laughed off the threat. “You can’t kill your right-hand man, Keith! That’s just rude,” he said, elbowing his friend.

Keith scoffed and stalked off through the store, Lance scrambling to follow. “Let me know what you’re looking at, okay? I have to know what you’re interested in so I can tell you if it’s good or not,” he insisted.

“Dude, I think I can pick out what I like,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “I’ve dressed myself for a while.”

_ And you’ve alway looked hot doing it _ , ran the thought through Lance’s mind. He blushed and stuttered a little bit at the unexpected thought. “Oh, I, um, yeah. You have. Obviously. But uh, I totally need to know what you’re getting anyway,” he repeated, “Gotta make sure you don’t look any less than your usual stellar self.”  _ Shit. _

“... Was that a space pun?” Keith asked, irritable.

_ This boy couldn’t recognize a flirt if he tried. Thank quiznak he didn’t, because I don’t know how I’d handle that shit right now. _

Lance just grinned in response. “Mayyybe,” he said, drawing out the word.

Keith just shook his head and continued flicking through the clothes. He found a new pair of fingerless gloves like his old ones (which were getting worn out) and told Lance so, moving onto the T-shirts.

“Oh my God,” Keith said when he found what he was sure Lance would call the perfect emo shirt.

“What? What is it?” Lance asked, bouncing on his heels.

“You’d like it,” Keith said dryly, “I can’t believe I found it, but it’s an MCR shirt.”

Lance’s jaw dropped. “Oh my God, you have to get it. You  _ have _ to.”

“Oh, I have to?” he asked teasingly, putting the shirt over his arm, “I thought I was the leader here.”

“Uh, it’s my expert right-hand man advice,” Lance said with a “duh” tone.

Keith laughed softly, elbowing Lance. “Fine, I’ll get it. You know the others are  going to tease me mercilessly over it, right?”

“I know. And that’s why…” He paused dramatically. “You can totally buy me a matching shirt, or just one  you think I’ll get teased over. But only you get this awesome privilege coupon, and it’s a one-time use only, so make it good!”

Keith blinked. “You sure you wanna give  _ me _ this power?” he asked dubiously. Why would Lance ever trust  _ him _ so much? He ignored the warm feeling the thought gave him in favor of being suspicious.

“Yeah. If I gave it to Pidge, she’d buy me something truly awful. But you…” Lance shrugged. “I trust you. I’m sure it’ll be embarrassing beyond belief, but I know I’d like it anyway.”

“Oh.” Keith wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he continued flicking through the shirts. “Uh, thanks I guess.”

He nearly started laughing when he found the perfect shirt, biting his lip to shut himself up. The shirt depicted an octopus with a suggestive look on its face, and the caption read “Handsy as Hell”. God, if that didn’t sound like Lance! 

“I can feel the amusement radiating off you, Samurai,” Lance said, raising his brows. “So. What’d you find?”

“Oh no. I’m not telling you what it is,” Keith replied, stifling his laughter, “You’re just gonna have to put it on.”

“Unfair!” Lance cried, smacking Keith’s foot gently with the cane, “I already know what you’re gonna wear.”

“Well, we’ll buy them and wear them back to the Castleship together. That way you won’t be alone,” Keith compromised. “I’ll tell you once it’s on.” 

Lance pouted. “Meanie. But fine,” he sighed dramatically, taking out his GAC credit card (borrowed from Allura). “Let’s buy them.”

Keith led him to the front of the store and got the shirts, stuffing them in the bag. “Okay. Let’s head to a bathroom and get changed,” he said, blushing almost immediately as he realized what he implied.

Lance, thankfully, didn’t seem to notice. He looked too busy concentrating on not running anyone over, or getting run over. Keith frowned and pulled him a little closer. “I’ve got you,” he murmured comfortingly.

Lance couldn’t explain why his throat went dry, why his heart raced, or why the simple action and phrase made him feel so warm and happy.


	6. Chapter Six

It took ages to find an open restroom, and when they did, it was one of those family ones. Not wanting to make any other aliens wait, Keith ushered Lance in and shut the door behind him.

“So,” Keith began, stripping his shirt and pulling on the new one, “How’re you doing, anyway?”

Lance had started to take his shirt off but paused as he remembered a very important detail. Keith had no idea what he was.

“Um, fine, I guess. You know, besides being blind,” he said, rolling his eyes slightly. “Hey, could you turn around?”

“Why?” Keith asked curiously. Now that he thought about it, he’d never seen Lance shirtless, even when he was going to the pool. He always wore a shirt. But Lance seemed like the type of guy who would _ love _ to show off his body at any opportunity.

“Please, just turn around,” he said again, a little more firmly. “Um, don’t face the mirror, either.”

“Okay,” Keith agreed, still puzzled but turning around.

_ :No trust Keith?: _

Oh, damn, Lance’d forgotten all about the quiet little mouse on his shoulder.  _ No, I trust him, I just… _ Hell,  he didn’t know. Maybe he  _ should _ trust Keith. If something happened, he’d have another person on his side. He  _ really _ didn’t want Pidge to know, not after her masquerading stunt. It felt like such a slap to the face to people like him, and she didn’t even care. He always had had Hunk, and now Coran in a way… Though the Space Uncle just thought he suffered from a deficiency, and not what Lance actually was. 

Keith’s magnetic pull was taking him in and swallowing him whole, and it scared him, but he wanted to trust Keith implicitly.

Heart hammering in his chest from his split second decision, he swallowed. “Hey, Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I… trust you with something? Something really, um, personal and private and all that stuff?” he asked with a nervous laugh, shifting Chulatt to the top of his head. Chulatt sent him a little pulse of happiness and pride through the bond.

“... Yeah. Yeah, of course you can,” Keith said, a little awed and guilty.  _ You wouldn’t trust me if you knew what I’d done _ , he thought to himself.

“You can… turn around,” Lance murmured as he tugged his shirt off. Oh shit, he was already regretting this.

Keith turned, brow furrowing at the undershirt Lance wore. “Um, you wanted to show me your weird undershirt?” he asked, blinking slowly.

Lance blinked and let out a startled laugh. “No, you goofball,” he said fondly, “It’s, um. It’s a binder. I’m trans, Keith.”

“Oh, okay.”

“... Is that it?”

“What? Am I supposed to say more?” Keith asked, confused as ever.

“No, no, I just… Heh. I expected a weird reaction, I guess,” Lance shrugged, tugging the new shirt on. He felt lighter, now. “Thank you. You and Hunk are the only ones who know. Coran knows to an extent, because he gives me T shots, but he doesn’t know… the whole story. I, um. Want to stay stealth, you know. Especially around Pidge.”

Keith thought for a moment and nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I can see why. So I guess that means Lotor’s the only true ho,” he said casually.

Lance choked on his laugh, covering his mouth with a hand. “Oh my God, Keith, that’s what you choose to focus on?”

“Well, it made you laugh, didn’t it?”

Lance didn’t have an answer to that. “Yeah… Anyway. I figured that maybe you could help me stay stealth, or something, I dunno. Chulatt said I ought to trust you, in a way. And since the mice haven’t told Allura anything, either, I thought they had to be right. So yeah.”

“I’ve got your back, right-hand man,” Keith said, clapping Lance’s shoulder. He’d almost slipped and said sharpshooter, but he knew that the nickname would likely hurt rather than be nice. “Seriously, it’s fine. I… I’ve kinda done a lot of research, back on Earth, when I was figuring myself out. I’m just gay, though.”  _ And I’d be fine with dating a trans guy, Lance. If only... _

“Oh,” Lance said, feeling like all the breath rushed out of him, “I, oh. I’m bi. So I’m like, half of the shortened acronym.”

Keith’s heart felt like it had stopped. Lance was bi? Keith might actually have a chance? What? Was there something in the air, here?

“... But you only flirt with girls,” was Keith’s intelligent reply.

Lance scoffed. “Trust me, Rolo was just as hot as Nyma. Wait, maybe you’d know. You just don’t flirt at all. Honestly, I’d started thinking you were ace,” he rambled, “But yea, no. I’m just really really bad at flirting with guys. So I don’t even try, hah.”

“Yeah, Rolo was pretty sexy,” Keith agreed unthinkingly, “But you flirt with  _ every _ girl, Lance. Surely you could do the same thing to a guy.”

Lance shook his head. “I’ve tried, when I was alone. I just can’t seem to get anywhere,” he shrugged. “Oh well anyway, right? I never see any of them again, so it’s not like I could actually… hold a stable relationship.” Jesus, when had this turned into a total heart-to-heart hour in the bathroom of a space mall?

Keith wanted to ask further questions, but he knew they were hogging the restroom probably longer than necessary.

Lance sensed it and sighed, getting the bag with their other shirts in it. “It’s just… fun. A distraction from… having to take lives. It’s a war,” he whispered, opening the door and walking out. Keith followed.

“I get it.” And Keith did. He didn’t do it himself. What he did was train. He trained, Lance flirted.

They made their way back to the pod in a comfortable silence. Lance was surprised by how easy it felt, despite the deep discussion they’d had. Maybe it was just Keith.

_ But why Keith? _

“Oh yeah, I never told you what you’re wearing,” Keith said suddenly.

“Dude! Tell me right this second,” Lance demanded. “How could you let me forget?”

Keith snorted. “It’s a grey shirt with an octopus on it. Caption says ‘handsy as hell’.”

Lance gaped. 

Keith chuckled.

“Dang, Keith, why you gotta call me out like that?” he finally whined, “That’s so rude!”

“Oh, and calling me out for MCR isn’t?” Keith countered.

“You called  _ yourself _ out. You could have just ignored it and not told me,” Lance muttered.

Keith paused. “I wasn’t going to lie to you, Lance. That’d be the real rude thing. You deserve better than that, pranks or not.”

Lance blushed. Now he saw why Chulatt wanted him to trust Keith. The older boy could have easily brushed him off, but he didn’t. Lance’s heart stuttered. “Th-Thanks, Samurai,” he finally said, climbing in the pod and letting Keith take them up to the Castleship.

Keith’s heart warmed at that. Lance really did trust him, then. It felt really, really nice. He could almost ignore all the wild teasing from his best friends, his space family, in favour of that one thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look at our nerd boys, trusting each other and stuff <3


	7. Chapter Seven

_ WAHN. WAHN. WAHN. _

Lance shot out of bed when the alarm went off, ready for a battle, when the realization hit him again. Goddamnit, why did he keep forgetting?  _ How _ could he keep forgetting? He turned towards his door instead of wardrobe, running down the hallways and counting each step, hands spread slightly to warn himself of anything. Fuck, he’d forgotten his cane.  _ Good fucking job McClain, you can’t even be blind right _ , he snarled at himself. Goddamnit, he’d fallen asleep in his binder, too.  _ Way to be unhealthy, idiot! _

Bursting onto the bridge, he listened as the team went out to protect another Balmera planet from a Galra attack. Shiro shouted instructions and they landed on the surface carefully, forming Voltron. A Robeast was dropped from the Galra ship and it warped away. Lance only knew what Coran told him and what he could hear over the comms. He  _ itched _ to be out there, fighting with his team, but he couldn’t be.

Matt’s voice came from next to Lance, startling him briefly. “I think the weak point is under that helmet! It doesn’t want to lose it!”

Lance bit his lip in worry. Lotor was even out there in his own little ship, trying to help fight, and he couldn’t do anything.

He took a deep breath, shoving the feelings down. His team needed him to have a cool head, even if he couldn’t fight. “What’s the helmet look like?” he muttered to Matt.

At the description, he paused, furrowing his brow in thought as he imagined what was going on. The Robeast sounded like a large snake with arms longer than its body, plated armor all along it. A helmet with horns rested on its head. Knock the helmet off, strike the head. That sounded appropriate. Lance couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about that assumption, though. If he was thinking about it right, the helmet sounded like it  _ couldn’t _ be knocked off. Like the armor plating was all connected.

The Robeast growled lowly, and Lance practically felt it vibrate, though that was impossible - he was in orbit in the Castleship with Coran and Matt.

“Hey guys!” he shouted to get their attention.

“What’s up, Lance?” Hunk’s voice crackled in.

“Is it raising its arms?”

“What?”

“I said is it raising its arms?” Lance repeated, furrowing his brow. “Is it flailing, trying to hit you, or is it keeping them on the ground for balance or something?”

“It’s not moving them too much unless it wants to ‘walk’ forward,” Keith explained, the realization suddenly hitting him.

“The weak point is the armpits!” Keith and Lance said together, both of them smirking in triumph.

“Okay, team,” Shiro said, smiling proudly, “Separate. We’ve got to get it to raise its arms. Keith, you’re the fastest, so we need you below to try and hit the armpit. Everyone else, up above to distract it.”

Voltron disappeared and four lions plus Lotor’s ship rose into the air, blasting the Robeast from above and trying to get it to swat at them. Red, with Keith, stayed below, weaving around and looking for an opportunity to strike.

“Looks like we’re still a good team, huh Keith?” Lance said fondly, almost to himself. He blushed when he heard Keith’s response.

“Yeah. We are.”

Lance could hear the smile in his voice and it made his heart skip a beat. As the battle went on, though, he got more and more anxious, Matt describing what was happening to him. Eventually, he heard everyone cheer and relaxed, breath wooshing out of him. They’d done it.

Matt bumped his hip against Lance. “Good job, bro,” he said.

Lance grinned. “All thanks to my wonderful brain! Thankfully only one part stopped functioning,” he joked.

“I was under the impression that the only part of your brain that worked before was lust,” Pidge shot back over the comms. 

“Okay, now that’s just mean,” he pouted, unable to fight back some of his giggles. “What about you, gremlin? You sure you’re not a robot? You seemed pretty  _ in love  _ with Beezer!”

Pidge just groaned, and Matt laughed. “He’s got you there, sis!”

Shiro just shook his head at their antics and they met with the Balmeran people to talk about a diplomacy meeting before piloting back to the Castleship.

\---

And so the days went, until a month - that is, a phoeb - had passed. Lance remembered to start taking his cane with him everywhere, especially with Chulatt sticking close to him and squeaking at him all the time. He wished he could understand the mouse better. He only got a few words at a time, and according to Allura, they could speak in more coherent sentences than what Lance could understand, and even share memories.

One night, Lance woke up at an ungodly hour and left Chulatt sleeping soundly on the bed as he got up to wander around. Without the mouse’s reminding squeak, he left his cane behind. He’d gotten too used to it, and by the time he realized he didn’t have it, he didn’t feel like going back when he figured he could get around.

He made his way to the observation deck, hoping it would comfort him despite the fact that he couldn’t actually enjoy the inky black of space, decorated with stars. He walked forward until he felt the glass panes and rested his forehead against the cool surface.

Lance didn’t move when he heard someone else enter the room. It could only be Keith, judging by the footsteps. He felt Keith come to stand by him.

“... I miss seeing it.”

Keith stayed silent.

“... I know I complained about having nothing but the same space to look at all the time, but I’d give anything to see it again.”

Lance sighed at the ensuing silence. “No, that’s a lie. I’d… rather give up this forever if it meant we won against the Galra and Earth was safe, and my family was safe, and we all survived… If this were the cost, I’d pay it gladly,” he said, shifting to a cooler part of the glass (that just happened to be closer to Keith).

“Lance…”

“I know it’s not, like, true or whatever and we could still lose right now, and all of that, but… I guess I was basically saying that I wouldn’t give anything to see again because that’s a lot of anything for me to be selfish,” he said with a sad laugh.

“Lance, it’s okay for you to want your sight back,” Keith said, sounding uncomfortable. He still wasn’t good with kind of shit. “It’s okay to say things like that. It’s not like some weird little genie is gonna pop up and say ‘oh, your wish is my command, but at a price’ and kill everyone.”

Lance snorted. “I thought I was the one who thought of weird shit like that,” he said dryly, shifting closer again.

Keith shrugged. “Guess you’ve influenced me,” he said ruefully. Lance kept coming closer, and it was making him nervous. He really wanted to wrap his arm around Lance in a comforting way or something, but he didn’t want Lance to be scared off. Why was this so hard? Oh right, because he was a gay space moron in love.

“Oh, is that a good thing? Because I think it’s a good thing,” Lance said easily, turning to smirk at Keith.

“Only if I’ve influenced you too,” he shot back playfully.

“Well, if you still have your old fingerless gloves, I’ll totally wear them for you,” Lance said with a widening grin, “You know, because you’ve influenced me so much. I’m going emo.”

Keith scowled and elbowed him, making Lance laugh again. Why were things so easy with Keith lately? Not that he was complaining. Honestly, it was starting to get a bit scary, how in-tune they were with each other. But Lance wanted to let himself drown in it.

“... I’m glad I could cheer you up,” Keith murmured.

“Keith, you always cheer me up, even we’re being all  _ rivals _ and  _ competition _ ,” he said, wiggling his fingers as he emphasized the words.

Keith snorted softly, but smiled. “That’s good to know, I guess,” he murmured.

“Yeah. So, what, you couldn’t sleep either?” he asked nonchalantly.

The red paladin shifted and sighed. “Yeah. Red was being all anxious in my head for some reason,” he muttered, “I don’t know what’s got into her…”

Lace frowned. Red’s mind hadn’t touched his in a while. It hurt, but he understood why. He wasn’t worthy anymore.

Searing pain suddenly broke in his mind. His bones felt like liquid fire and he choked off a startled scream. Keith felt the rush of heat in his own head, understanding immediately that it was flinging itself at Lance.

_ Red…? _

The pain abruptly cut off and Lance found himself stuck in the mindscape with an enraged… kitten? He had a half second to be confused before the small red cat was on him, smacking the absolute shit out of his head and yowling angrily. Keith appeared, cautiously sinking in with him to make sure Red didn’t murder Lance.

Lance was still trying to come to terms with the fact that  _ he could see _ in the mindscape to pay too much attention to Red’s rant.

_ {You’re still worthy!}  _  she was screaming when Lance was finally able to focus,  _ {You’re just being stupid!} _

Lance winced and gently took the screaming cat from his head,  _ looking _ at her in wonder. “I… I’m sorry. But it’s not like I can even do anything,” he said unsteadily, feeling weird about the… loving attack? What?

Red growled softly at him.  _ {Come to me,} _ she commanded, hopping down from his arms. 

“Jesus, you’re as bad as Keith sometimes,” he muttered to himself, looking around the mindscape and drinking in the sights while he could. He focused on Keith’s face, with his confused scowl, and smiled.

Blinking, he found himself back in his body, feeling as if nothing had happened. He couldn’t see anymore, again, and he made a frustrated sound.

Keith shifted by him and Lance realized that the floor had jumped up and grabbed them (no they didn’t fall, what are you talking about, obviously the floor betrayed them). And he was currently sprawled over Keith’s chest. He felt very exposed and very glad that Keith already knew his secret, because Lance hadn’t put his binder on before taking his walk and Keith would  _ definitely _ feel that Lance’s pecs were actually breasts. He thanked his lucky stars that they were relatively small, anyway.

Keith stopped breathing when he realized he had Lance on top of him. He stared into Lance’s face, distracted by all his gay thoughts. Lance felt really good, pressed up against him like this. God, his face was surely on fire.

Lance didn’t want to move, but he did anyway, rolling off of Keith and standing up. “I’d help you up, but I might hurt you instead,” he said with a nervous laugh.

Keith was snapped out of his thoughts and also stood. “‘S fine, Lance. Red said she wanted to see you, right? I’ll take you,” he offered.

Lance smiled and held out his arm, grin getting brighter when Keith took it and started leading him down. “I wonder why she wants to see me. I mean, I’m not… I’m not saying anything, in case she fucks with my head again, but you know how I feel, since she dragged you into it,” he said, nibbling his bottom lip worriedly. 

The red paladin hummed in thought. “Well, she couldn’t keep you in the mindscape for long without you being there with her. Maybe she wants to talk to you more. I can’t say… She’s not telling me anything.”

Lance’s teeth kept biting his lip until he started bleeding, causing him to gasp. Keith looked over and frowned. 

“Lance, stop eating your lip. If you’re so hungry, go wake up Hunk,” he said irritably.

Lance sputtered at that, unsure how to react, but choosing to settle on indignant after a moment. “Hunk is the most precious man in the world and he deserves his sleep,” he declared, wanting to cross his arms but not wanting to lose his way. “And besides, I’m not trying to eat my lip anyway. What would that make me? A really weird zombie? I have no idea.”

Keith huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes. “I don’t have any idea, either.”

Eventually, they reached Red’s hangar, and Keith encouraged Lance into his lion. Red didn’t allow Keith in for this.

Inside the cockpit, Lance sat down, still confused and kind of hurt by her actions earlier. “Why did you hurt me like that, ol’ girl?” he whispered.

Red rumbled softly and he felt the guilt wash over him, followed by an apology.  _ {Didn’t think so much anger would hurt,} _ she explained, gently tugging him into the mindscape. Her usual lioness form appeared, looking sad and guilty, and Lance couldn’t help but forgive her and pull her into a hug.

_ {You’re too sad all the time,} _ she told him amongst her purrs,  _ {Put yourself down. Don’t like it. Got mad. Miss you.} _

Lance smiled into her fur and sighed. “Yeah, well, Red, you can’t fix blind. Sorry. I miss you too. I miss Blue. I miss being part of Voltron,” he rambled, lying back and staring up at the sky of the mindscape.

Red rested her head on Lance’s chest, purring comfortingly. After a few moments of more silence frm Lance, she gently pushed him from the mindscape and he settled back to wake up in his body, ready for nothingness.

Except.

Except he didn’t see nothing.

_ He saw the hangar. _ But it was… weird? Red purred in his mind and he jolted. Of course. He could see through her eyes. Holy shit. He thought it was odd he didn’t see Keith but shook it off.

“Hey Red, baby, why don’t we go out and have a little flight ‘round the castle?” he suggested.

Red agreed easily, wanting her Paladin to feel safe and loved and wanted again. The door slid open and Red flew out, Lance’s hands remembering the controls as he looked into space. He heard a roar and they shifted to see Black sailing out. 

“Shiro? Or Keith?” he asked over the lions’ comms.

“It’s Keith,” came the reply, “Black called me back after you were bonding with Red again. She showed me some weird images of Shiro, too. I’m not sure what to make of them.”

“Ah, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Lance said, too busy drinking in the sights, “Not right now. Tell me later.”

Keith grunted an affirmative and flew around the Castleship with Lance and they talked a lot about nonsense, feeling like they were bonding together like they had without Shiro. It felt a lot like that, actually. It was nice.

Red flashed Lance a warning about his quintessence drain and he reluctantly came back with her, disconnecting and watching his vision go dark again. 

_ {Can’t sustain it forever… Hurts you. I can’t lend too much of my quintessence or you’ll die,} _ Red explained, wishing she could do more for Lance.

Lance shivered at the implications and nodded. “I get it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” he muttered, ignoring Red’s surprised chuckle as he tumbled out.

Shit, fuck. Without his cane, he’d have a tough time getting back. “Keith?” he called out uncertainly.

Keith trotted in from Black’s hangar a moment later. “I’m here, Lance. I’ll get you to bed, no worries. Why’d you forget your cane anyway?”

“Cause I thought I’d be fine without it. I didn’t plan on taking a lion trip,” he said, laughing a little shakily.

Keith took Lance’s arm and smiled. “Well, I’m glad we figured something out for you,” he murmured, frowning a moment later, “Those visions Black showed me… I…”

Lance nudged him. “Just tell me what you saw and I’ll help you interpret it. I don’t know why she didn’t tell you outright, though,” he noted with confusion.

“She said she couldn’t. Part of breaking the bond or whatever. Just like how she couldn’t tell Shiro anything about Zarkon,” Keith explained. Then he launched into an explanation of what he’d seen.

Zarkon taking control and forcing Black to eject Shiro, leaving her lifeless and missing her paladin. Flashes she’d caught from their weak connection of Shiro being tortured, something being hooked up to his head and  _ draining _ him somehow. Then nothing until connecting with Shiro again after they found him, his presence feeling a little colder, a little tainted, somehow.

“I felt the same way, but I just thought… you know, awful stuff happens and it changes you,” Keith murmured, “Black is reluctant to keep trusting him until he feels better, you know?”

Lance nodded. “I get it. Shiro’s… Shiro’s made some rough decisions, if you ask me, but he’s probably still recovering. You know how he pretends he’s okay,” he replied, tucking away the swirling thoughts in his head for later. He didn’t trust the Shiro that had come back to them. Not one bit.

Keith hummed an agreement, letting go of Lance’s arm when he realized the taller man’s footsteps were more sure of themselves. They had gotten to a part of the Castleship that Lance recognized by sound now.

“If Black’s gonna shut him out again… And I think she will, after hearing what she said to you about him… You’ll have to take over again. She’s not trusting his decisions for a reason,” Lance continued. “I’m glad Red still wants me. I can still help form Voltron.”

Keith pursed his lips in thought. “I don’t want to do it again, but I trust the lions,” he finally said, “Shiro needs to take a break.”

Lance nodded. “Exactly.”

For a moment, everything was okay.

Then Chulatt’s sudden squeak startled Lance and he jumped, trying not to move and wind up stepping on his little friend. But he’d been set off balance. Keith reached out and tried to grab him, but he wasn’t quick enough.

He watched with horror as Lance’s arms pinwheeled, trying to regain his balance. His expression was one of pure, unadulterated fear and time slowed as he pitched backwards.

Lance knew they’d been right by a staircase.

Lance knew he was falling towards it.

Lance knew Keith had tried to save him.

Lance knew he was going to die by falling down a fucking  _ staircase _ instead of in battle against the Galra.

Lance couldn’t even scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> owo what's this? a cliffhanger? hmmm.... hope the week goes by fast <3 I also hope you all are catching the foreshadowing going on here, eheheh. I also know that next week marks s5 of Voltron and my fic and version of Lotor I've carved out are going to get jossed to hell, but hey, AU's are wonderful and if canon Lotor turns out to be evil I'm gonna kick someone's ass.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, here we go. Last upload, just in before the s5 drop. This entire fic is gonna go to absolute hell when that happens in about 15 minutes, but oh well. I hope that whatever happens, this fic can still be enjoyed, because I've got 50k of this shit written <3 either way i'm not giving up on it, or changing anything already written, or any of that nonsense. i'm proud of this shit yo and I hope it continues to bring joy to the hearts of my readers, no matter the fates of canon!

The first thing Lance’s mind registered was  _ pain _ . He felt like a cannon had just shot him halfway across the universe, followed by a train running him over.

Sounds slowly reached his ears - Chulatt’s worried squeaking, Keith’s shouting voice. He winced. 

“Loud,” he managed to mumble out, attempting to sit up. His entire body felt  _ wrong _ .

“Shit, sorry Lance,” Keith muttered, panicking. “I’m gonna pick you up and take you to a healing pod, okay? Shit. I’m kinda glad you can’t look at yourself right now. You look fucking scary.”

Lance furrowed his brow and let out a small scream as Keith picked him up, pain rupturing along his whole body.

“Fuck, okay, I’m gonna be as careful as I can. We’re on the right floor, at least,” he said with a nervous chuckle, carrying Lance down the hall to the healing chambers. They’d almost been to their bedrooms, a floor above the bridge and healing pods.

Carefully, he tottered down the halls, doing his best not to jostle Lance too much. He didn’t want to cause him any more pain than he was already in. Getting in the room was a little tough, but he was able to open the door and a pod, gently resting Lance in. He hardly noticed Chulatt settling in on Lance’s head as he programmed the pod and watched Lance freeze over.

“Fuck,” he said softly, looking down at the blood that seeped into his clothing and arms. There was probably a trail, too. He started to clean it up, pinning his hair back in a ponytail. Keith was pretty damn sure Lance’s tumble had broken bones and he prayed that Lance didn’t suffer anymore brain damage from it.

Once he’d cleaned, Keith wrote a note and pasted it to Lance’s pod, explaining briefly what had happened. Heaving a deep sigh, he went to finally clean himself and go to train. He needed to work off the stress.

\----

Coran was the one who’d found Lance first, being alerted that a pod was in use. He winced at the note he found.

“Oh, Lance… The universe just doesn’t like you lately, does it?” he said softly, frowning.

The paladins slowly trickled in. First came Hunk, up early to make breakfast as usual.

“Whoa, Coran, what happened to Lance?” he asked, worried, “Is he gonna be okay? How hurt is he?”

Coran waited for Hunk to get all his questions out before telling him what he’d read in the note Keith had left.

The cycle repeated as Shiro and Allura showed up together, then Pidge, Matt, and finally, Lotor. They left Lance to heal as they all went to eat what Hunk had cooked up. Keith never showed up, still training even hours later to try and work off the worry.

A couple vargas after breakfast, Lance stumbled out of the pod, having been in there the better part of a quintant. “Ugh. I need a shower,” he muttered, wrinkling his nose. The pods didn’t exactly clean them while they healed up.

_ :You reek,: _ Chulatt agreed.

“Oh, hey little buddy,” he said, immediately becoming stone still. He  _ really _ didn’t want to repeat last night, even though he knew he wasn’t anywhere near a staircase.

_ :I’m sorry. Didn’t want to scare you,: _ the mouse apologized regretfully.

Lance hummed. He noticed that he was getting a stronger voice, with more full sentences from Chulatt and wondered how long he’d been in the pod, or if he was just more sensitive to it, or whatever. It didn’t feel like he’d been in there too long…

“Anyone in here?” he called out, listening hard. He didn’t hear anyone… wait, the door slid open.

“Oh, Lance, you’re up,” Keith said, sounding a little shocked.

“Yeah. You wouldn’t happen to have my cane, would you? How long was I out?” he asked, turning to furrow his brow at Keith.

“Yeah. It was only half a day - quintant. It’s not long after breakfast now,” he explained, stepping forward and taking Lance’s hand to place the cane in it.

Lance cleared his throat and took it from Keith with a quiet “thanks”, tapping it against the floor. “I’m gonna go shower and stuff. I feel gross. I’ll probably eat afterwards.”

Keith frowned a little. “Okay. I’m gonna go ahead and eat. I’ve been training since I got you in the pod,” he explained.

Lance’s jaw dropped. “Dude. Don’t make yourself pass out from exhaustion,” he said, poking Keith in the chest. “I know you’re worried, but I can take care of myself, as long as nobody startles me by a staircase anymore.”

Chulatt squeaked softly in renewed apology, and Lance petted him gently.  _ You’re fine, Chu. It’s okay. _

Keith shook his head. “I’ll let the others know,” he said with bemusement, “You’ll make it back to your room okay?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, no problem. See ya, Keef,” he said, the silly nickname slipping out as he carefully walked out.

Keith was left befuddled by it. “That’s… not my name,” he said to an empty room.

\---

“Ugh, I’m such an idiot. Chulatt, please tell me I didn’t call him Keef to his face,” Lance begged, mortified as he hustled down the hall.

_ :You didn’t. It was more towards the wall,: _ Chulatt said helpfully.

Lance wanted to bang his head on a wall after hearing that. “Thanks,” he said sarcastically, listening to Chulatt’s squeaks of amusement. “Some friend you are.”

After he’d ran through his routine, he headed to the kitchen area, being extra mindful of the stairs. Ugh, the stairs around here were gonna give him the creeps for a while.

“Is my favorite Hunky chef in here?” he called when he heard shuffling in the kitchen.

“Yup,” came the cheerful reply, “Keith told me you were up and getting yourself cleaned up, so I came to make an early lunch for you.”

“Aw, you’re the best, buddy,” Lance said as he dropped into a chair and grinned.

Once he’d eaten, Shiro called a meeting for everyone, sounding worried. 

“What’s going on?” Lance asked as he entered the room, “Weren’t you guys about to all go train in the lions?”

“That’s just the problem, Lance. Black stopped letting me in,” Shiro said worriedly.

It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

Keith shifted, debating for a moment if he should tell Shiro now. Glancing at Lance, he decided right now. “Shiro, I’m pretty sure Black wants you to rest. Lance and I went to the lions last night after Red called to him,” he began.

Lance shifted nervously. “Yeah. I got that vibe too.” And more, he though, but didn’t say it aloud. “You really need to take a break. She’s worried about your mental health.”

Shiro blinked. “I’m fine,” he protested.

Allura glared at him. “If the Black Lion is aware of this and thinks you need to rest, no amount of protest is going to work on me,” she said firmly, “Besides, if she’s not letting you in anyway, she is forcing you to rest.”

Shiro gritted his teeth, but didn’t say anything more against it. He inhaled slowly.  _ Patience _ , he reminded himself. “I guess I’ll have to rest, then,” he said reluctantly. “Is Black talking to you, Keith?”

Keith nodded. “Yes. She let me in last night. Red let Lance in and we took a small flight around nearby,” he added, watching the shocked reactions.

“But… How could Lance fly around if he, you know, can’t see?” Hunk asked, bewildered. 

“I’m right here you guys,” Lance said, annoyed, “Just because I can’t see doesn’t mean I’m invisible to you.”

“My guess is he is looking through Red’s eyes,” Allura chimed in, beaming. “I’m happy for you, Lance.”

Lance smiled. “Right in one, ‘Lura,” he said brightly. “Thanks.”

“So!” Allura clapped her hands once to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s go to a nearby planet and practice forming Voltron again. I know we could do it before, but Lance will need the practice with using Red’s eyes.”

Lance’s grin grew. “Awesome.”

\----

“Not. Awesome,” Lance groused. They’d flown to a nearby planet that seemed to be entirely jungle and uninhabited by any sentient species. The once-again-red paladin couldn’t quite grasp Red’s quintessence and it frustrated him to no end. It didn’t help that Red was being playful and showing him different sights and telling him to just trust her. He wanted to  _ see _ it for himself.

He loved Red, but he dearly missed his Blue.

Red flashed him an image of a snarling red lioness and he sighed, slumping to the ground and staying there.

_ I’m sorry, Red. I get it. I really do. I’m just a mess, alright?  _

Red rumbled quietly and the others exited their lions, tired from failed attempts at forming Voltron.

“What’s going on, Lance?” Pidge asked, exasperated, “I thought you said that you and Red were cool again.”

“I thought we were!” Lance burst out, sitting up from his position on the ground. “But she’s not letting me just use her sight. She’s giving me weird visions instead and saying to trust her.”

Keith attempted to stifle a snort. “She did that to me in the beginning too, Lance. You both just need to trust each other,” he said, “Red’s not gonna let you until you trust her.”

Lance ran a hand through his hair - or, tried to. His hand just crashed into his helmet and he growled at himself. The air here wouldn’t support them, so it had to stay on.

Allura frowned and sat next to Lance. “You’ll get it, Lance. I promise,” she said, taking his hand and squeezing it. “I know it must be tough after having a taste of that freedom again, but Red  _ has _ to be doing it this way for a reason.”

“Yeah, no worries buddy,” Hunk said brightly, plopping down on Lance’s other side to squeeze him in a half hug. “You’ll get it. Hopefully soon though.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lance said, “The Galra are starting to attack more again. We…  _ I _ need to get this.” he sighed and stood up, turning to face Red.

She rumbled and opened her maw for Lance to clamber in. Once he’d settled in the chair, the others retreated to their own lions.

“Okay, Lance. We can do this. Let’s form Voltron,” Keith’s voice crackled through on the comms.

Lance took a deep breath, trying to relax.  _ Trust you. Alright, girl. I’ll try. _

Red purred happily at him and he let their minds mix together. She showed him volcanic imagery, places she adored for her element was fire. Lance felt warm, almost too warm. He was meant for the ice, but he could brave this for the fate of the universe. Taking another deep breath, he let Red do as she wanted and let his hands control the levers under her command.

_ Trust. _

Rising in the air, the five lions flew, weaving together in the air and their paladins focused, breathing in sync.

Connection.

Lance felt their minds link up, felt the familiar feeling of becoming one with each other. It soothed him in ways he hadn’t known were aching. His friends’ thoughts buzzed around him, nothing more than murmurs, but comforting all the same. The volcanic imagery disappeared and Lance found himself looking at the jungle. He smirked, feeling a thrill run through him.

“Thanks, Red,” he whispered. “For trusting me back.”

She purred at him and he heard the others cheering.

“Good job, Lance,” Keith said. Did Lance imagine it, or was there actually a fondness in his tone?

“Nothin’ to it but to do it, right?” he replied, unable to stop grinning. “This is awesome. I take back what I said earlier about it being not awesome.”

He heard everyone laugh and he felt warm again, but this time it was comfortable. He was with his team, they were happy, and he could see, even if it was only temporary. All in a good day’s work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, btw, no evil cliffhanger this time! And oh... look at that. two weeks to the end of this fic, of part 1. part 2 is already completed and part 3 is nearly done! get ready for a roller coaster ride, folks!


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me preface this by saying how sorry I am for being a full day late with this chapter. I had a very tiring, upsetting week, and entirely forgot about uploading ;; But, good news? DOUBLE UPDATE TO MAKE UP FOR IT! You're getting the final two chapters of part one! Part two will go up next week on Friday (maybe Thursday, because I'll be leaving for con for the weekend). This chapter is mostly Lance's inner rambling, but it contains very important information.... enjoy!

Battles on foot were a lot more complicated than flying the lion.

For one, Lance couldn’t really join them. He was stuck on the outside, a sharpshooter unable to do his job. The team had pretty bad close calls and it hurt Lance every time when he could have just sniped those motherfuckers if he’d just been more alert and not let himself get conked out a few phoebs ago, losing his sight in the process.

Shiro kept trying to direct the team, but everyone was forcing him to take a break and figure out how to relax and let go of his suffering so Black would take him back.

It made Lance happy to know that Shiro was trying, anyway, and he liked being Keith’s right-hand man. Still, the Shiro that had returned to him was… unsettling. The Shiro he’d known would have accepted his fate and meditated or whatever, not insisted on on being the leader. It started to wear on Lance and the suspicion niggling at the back of his mind only grew.

The constant sharing of his and Red’s quintessence started having a peculiar effect whenever they shared eyes. He could  _ see  _ quintessence. Not as in the pure form that everyone could see in Haggar’s vials, but the quintessence of sentient life-forms. It was faint, but he felt like he was seeing the souls of life, in a way. Little golden glowing balls of mist. It seemed like everyone was golden.

Until he saw physical Galra soldiers again, looking into the windows through Red’s eyes as Voltron hovered outside the ship, ready to blast them.

Their quintessence was corrupted beyond repair. Their mists were black with a sickly purple glow that turned Lance’s stomach. He wondered, then, if they could catch traitors this way. People that actively served Zarkon had corrupted quintessence. Regular thieves and murderers, Lance noticed, still had a golden glow, though. Zarkon’s ideas were literal  _ poison _ to people and their lives. Hell, maybe the universe itself.

He wondered if it was the universe’s way of saying every life had value except these guys as they threatened the existence of everyone.

The day he felt his blood freeze in his veins was the day Shiro walked out of the Castleship while he still sat in Red, comforted by her warmth (that reminded him so much of Keith, though he refused to let himself think about  _ why  _ that was so comforting.). They’d fought and freed another planet, and the others had exited their lions to go join the celebrations. Lance hadn’t wanted to leave just yet. He wanted to watch it happen while he could.

But then Shiro walked out and his worst nightmares were confirmed.

Shiro’s quintessence mist ball was black with a sickly purple glow that turned Lance’s stomach in more ways than one this time.

Lance was suddenly both very grateful and filled with trepidation about his decision to keep quiet about his newfound ability with Red’s eyes. Shiro - or whoever it was - wouldn’t know about this, and Lance was safe. But how was he going to explain this to the others? 

He couldn’t avoid Shiro when he went down to the party, but knowing what he knew made his skin crawl. If this creature was Zarkon’s, who knew what its abilities were? He had to suss the situation out, but he needed to tell someone else.

Allura and Matt were out - they were in love with Shiro and finally taking delicate steps towards a relationship with the three of them. They might just decide Lance was being “jealous” due to his past flirting Allura, even though he’d toned it down since he realized she was really just a sister to him.

Coran would, naturally, alert Allura and then things would go wrong.

Pidge would just scoff at him because her scans would show nothing wrong and Lance was just being paranoid. Lance loved her, but she got wrapped up in her own abilities and trusted herself too much. Matt definitely didn’t help there, either.

Hunk  _ might _ believe him, but he’d ask too many questions and try to be neutral until Hunk could actually see the evidence for himself. He’d probably also accidentally blurt it in front of Shiro somehow, too nervous to act normal.

Lance felt that after idolizing Shiro for so long, and the other Paladins being definitely highly aware of  that, that if he were to express doubts, they should actually listen to him (or maybe they’d think  _ he _ was the one who’d been… replaced, somehow).

Keith was his last option. But Keith idolized Shiro, too. However… Keith  _ would _ be the person to go to, since he’d known Shiro for so long before any of them anyway. Maybe if Lance raised his concerns, Keith could keep an eye out for subtleties Lance would never have noticed. Keith  _ already _ felt concerned about Shiro. Maybe Lance could get Keith on his side and they could make a plan for it, or something.

Red flashed him a questioning feeling and he froze.

“Wait, you guys.. Can you see quintessence? Like, the way I am now?” he asked, making sure his comms were off first. 

_ {No.} _

Oh,  _ hell _ . 

“Red, something’s terribly wrong,” he said hoarsely, “That’s… That’s not the real Shiro. How the  _ fuck _ do I break this to Keith without alerting the fake Shiro? Where’s  _ our _ Shiro? How are we gonna defeat this guy? He... He knows  _ everything _ , Red. We can’t let him get back to the Galra. But… How are we supposed to fight him?”

Red purred at him comfortingly, even though her instincts screamed at her to rip the false leader of Voltron to shreds to protect her paladins. Even though she was the impusilve lion, she understood the need to lie in wait before pouncing - impulsive or not, she was still a lion.

Lance sighed, disconnecting from her quintessence and letting his world darken. “I guess I better figure something out. If I don’t go down there, though, they’ll get suspicious. I need to keep this on the down-low for now,” he rambled, standing up and exiting.

He snapped his cane out and carefully made his way over, listening hard for the sounds of his team’s voices. He wound up near Keith and grinned.

“Hey, Lance. Took you awhile to get out of there, you doing okay?” Keith murmured as he accepted a flower crown one of the natives had made him.

“Yeah. Just wanted to watch for a bit, you know,” Lance replied easily.

Another native tapped Lance on his arm and Lance bent to allow the shorter being to bestow him his flower crown. He hadn’t been able to really see what the looked like from Red, except that they came in all the colors the lions did.

Keith began to describe them as best he could for Lance. He wasn’t very good, but Lance appreciated his efforts. He’d ask Hunk again later, but he thanked Keith anyway, grinning brightly.

Lance would break his heart about Shiro in a little while anyway. No need to be an ass over flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance doesn't usually take Chulatt on missions (to explain his absence :) )


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm excited to see this arc finish, even if there's tons of loose ends. But that's what part 2 is for! The stage has been set, now comes the rest of the play. Thanks for coming along on the ride. Don't worry, Keith and Lance finally stop being slowburn morons and get their shit together super early on in part 2.

Long after everyone had gone to bed, Lance lay awake, thinking over how to break the news to Keith. He had to do it delicately, so that Keith would consider his words, but not so hand-holding that Keith just got pissed at him anyway.

Ugh. He probably needed to just do it and get it over with. He was having a hard time being near the fake Shiro without being hyper-aware of him now, and someone was going to catch on eventually. Probably quickly. He really didn’t want that someone to be the fake Shiro and then have Lance “accidentally” killed in battle or something.

Groaning, he stuffed his face into his pillow and tried to smother himself to sleep. When that didn’t work, he gave up and grabbed his cane, deciding to just go for another late night walk. He sighed as he tapped his way through the castle to clear his head.

At least this time Chulatt was still asleep in his nest, and not somewhere ready to scare Lance down a set of stairs again. His lips twitched at the thought, chuckling to himself. Going down stairs still freaked him out a little, but he figured he may as well find it funny. Seriously, who gets startled by a mouse except ladies in old 40’s cartoons?

He hummed softly to himself as he wound up in the observatory. Even if he couldn’t see anything, it was still a comfortable place to be.

“Another sleepless night?”

Lance shrieked, raising his cane to beat at whoever had spoken until the voice registered and he recognized it as Keith’s.

“You’re a bastard,” he said immediately, not answering the question as he sat on the couch and placed a hand over his heart. “I think I died, Keith. You killed me.”

“Okay, so I kind forgot for a second that you couldn’t actually see that I was here,” Keith huffed, “I’m sorry I scared you.”

Lance blinked at him. “You… forgot I was blind. Who the hell am I, Toph?” he asked rhetorically, thankful that his heart rate was going down.

Keith furrowed his brow. “Who?”

“Oh my God, you never watched Avatar The Last Airbender?” Lance gaped, “Okay, no, Pidge definitely had the entire series downloaded onto her laptop, so we’re forcing you to watch it. Absolutely, one-hundred percent, no arguments. It’s *art*, Keith. Pure art. You’ll love it.”

Keith inhaled and exhaled deeply, rubbing his hand over his face.  _ Why the fuck is Lance so cute? _ he thought to himself

“If you say so, Lance,” he finally said, “What’s it about, anyway?”

Lance launched into a detailed explanation of the show and its lore and the characters, being careful not to give too much away with it. Keith listened intently. The show definitely sounded interesting, and the way Lance praised the animation and writing made him want to watch it. 

“So anyway, Toph is a total badass, and everyone forgets she’s actually blind, it’s a running joke in the show. It’s hilarious, so that’s why I compared myself to her when you said you’d forgotten I was blind,” he finished with a huge grin.

“Okay, well, next time we have enough downtime, I’ll watch some with you,” Keith replied, watching Lance fondly. He was kinda glad Lance couldn’t see the dopey facial expressions he was making.

Lance beamed even brighter, and Keith felt warm and happy.

After a few quiet moments, however, Lance sighed. He might as well get it over with now. He had Keith alone.

“Keith, I have something pretty seriously important to talk to you about,” he said reluctantly, shifting to try and stare at Keith’s face with a serious expression.

“Oh, okay. What is it you needed to talk about?” he asked with a furrowed brow. He didn’t ask why Lance hadn’t gone to Shiro instead - he understood why. Shiro was still way too stressed.

“It’s about Shiro,” Lance replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

_ Okay, so not what I thought, but still.  _ He waited silently for Lance to continue.

“I don’t think… Something’s seriously wrong with him. He’s not… right,” he said, struggling to find the words, “He’s not nearly the same as he was before. And I… I’m pretty certain the Galra got their claws into his brain somehow.”

“Okay… Why do you think that?” Keith asked neutrally, trying to consider it carefully.

Lance sighed. “When I’m in Red and use her eyes, I can… kinda see quintessence now. It's hard to describe. I can see the quintessence that gives everyone their life. It's kinda like a golden misty ball of stuff centered in everyone's chest. But, like... The quintessence that Zarkon and Haggar use is corrupted. They feed off the corrupted version and the guys who serve them also use the corrupted stuff. And I can tell it because I see the corrupted stuff instead of the pure form it is for almost everyone in the universe. It's black and kinda glows purpley. I guess wanting to destroy-slash-rule over the entire universe makes the universe not like you very much."

"Okay... Where are you going with this?" Keith asked, as if he didn't have the suspicion clawing at his thoughts, forcing his heart to race and palms to sweat. 

"Keith, when I saw Shiro today at the party from Red, his quintessence mist ball was black and purple," Lance finally said, heart stopping. 

"You need to get your eyes checked," Keith immediately spat out.

Lance just stared (not quite) at Keith with a deadpan expression. "Dude. Seriously?"

Keith didn't have anything to say to that, knowing that was probably a pretty big and shitty blunder. 

"Listen to me, okay? I know you look up to Shiro and everything, but something's been off about him since he showed up again. He's been making pretty crap decisions, not listening to us, his freaking team, and he hasn't even been trying to be like a weird dad to us anymore. It's like everything that made Shiro Shiro is gone and there's something different, something evil, in his place. I have proof that I saw with my own two eyes! Which is weird because I'm blind! And technically it was Red's eyes! Keith, if something is so wrong, then we need to figure it out and get our real Shiro back," he ranted.

Keith's hands curled into fists and he began breathing harshly, wishing he could ignore the reality that Lance was laying out before him. But Lance wasn't Keith's right-hand man for nothing. He might lie about stupid shit, but Keith knew Lance wouldn't try to hurt him like this for some lie or prank.

Exhaling sharply, he forced his hands to relax. "Okay. Okay. So our Shiro is still out there somewhere. And we have some kind of evil, what, clone thing on our hands?" he asked, trying to cobble together a theory.

"Okay, it sounds like one of those shitty soap operas when you put it that way, but yes," Lance replied, relieved that Keith was listening to him. "That's exactly what I'm thinking. Or some kind of robot. Something. And I don't know, man, I can't keep an eye out for anything wrong while we're in the castle. You know, blind. If this guy might be planning something like purposefully not listening to me on Naxzela and almost getting us all killed, I can't watch out for that. It's subtle."

Keith nodded, humming in thought. "We need to get this guy taken down before he ruins us, or exposes all of our plans to Zarkon, or something. We need to get our real Shiro back. But the question is, how do we do that?"

Lance wrinkled his nose. "We need to ask Slav. I hate when he rambles on about reality crap, but he might actually be able to get us onto something with the right amount of information. He could find our Shiro and maybe we could get something out of him to tell us how to defeat this clone guy quietly."

"Ugh. You're talking to him, not me," Keith replied, wrinkling his nose.

"Buddy, I'm totally okay with that, but if he tries to show me something..."

"... I hate you."

"I hate you, too."

Keith sighed. "Okay, so when should we talk to him? Now? It's the best time to sneak off while everyone's asleep."

Lance nodded. "Yeah. He might get freaked out about us waking him up, but we need to start investigating this right away," he murmured, standing up. He offered his arm out and collapsed his cane, sticking it into his pocket.

Keith took it without thinking, face heating up. "Yeah. Let's go," he whispered, gently leading Lance away and towards Slav's area of the castle.

Naturally, dealing with Slav was the ultimate nightmare, but Lance and Keith were able to walk away with Slav searching for Shiro and a little bit of knowledge that this reality might just be the one where everything turns out okay in the end. Hopefully, depending on how quickly Slav could locate Shiro.

Keith had snapped that he'd better damn well find Shiro fast, then because he didn't want this to be a bad reality. 

Lance had winced and took Keith away to calm him down.

"We've got this, Keith,” he assured him, placing both hands on Keith’s shoulders, “We’re gonna win this, get Shiro back, and save the universe.” He gave Keith a crooked smile.

Keith looked at Lance for a long moment before nodding. “Yeah. We can do this.”


End file.
